Our History

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Wednesday, 30 July 2025

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Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph capturing a group of Warragul Apex Club volunteers in action in Burke St Park, Warragul in 1967. The photograph, taken in December, captured the Warragul Apexians digging foundations for an undercover barbecue area. This commenced the...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Gazette linotype operator Mr W. Boyak during a student tour of the Gazette building in 1967. Warragul North Primary School students are captured touring the Gazette office in Queen St, Warragul to see all different sections...

Changing needs of the Gippsland Track

The Gippsland Track has grown and matured, shifting and changing to meet changing needs. National Route 1 was identified and listed officially in 1955. In 2004 VicRoads listed the Princes Highway East as Arterial Road 6510. It has several names even...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of busy Williams St in Warragul from November 1967. Taken from the Regent Theatre building, the photograph was taken to illustrate the crowded thoroughfare often referred to as Williams Lane. However, it hasn’t been officially Williams...

Tracks winding through Gippsland

The Old Sale Road, as the Gippsland Track became known, a name which seems to have been used from about 1878 when the railway was coming through Gippsland, was a new route created to follow the line, and the railway lines were carefully surveyed to...

Travelling the Gippsland track

Gippsland was first entered by white people down the Tambo Valley and on to the Gippsland Lakes. From 1835 there were squatters in the Omeo district, and they gradually extended their use of the land down that valley. We’ve talked about that...

The hole beside our road

We have been really lucky this year, in Quamby Rd. We have had two official holes down at the other end, where there is bitumen. The hole men seem to prefer places where there is that black bit in the middle of the road. Let me say at the outset that...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the Longwarry Scout Hall in Collett St c1969. The town once had a prolific scout pack, producing no less than five Queen Scouts. However, it is the story of the community banding together to build this scout hall which stands...

Old dogs and good mates

It is the night of January 15. More correctly, it is 30 minutes into January 16, and I am sitting on the roofed deck at the back of my house listening to the grumbling thunder, enjoying the lightning and enjoying even more the sound of the occasion...

Snapshot of the past

A sketch by early Drouin South settler Franklin Jackson of his property “Ferntree” on Weebar Rd, dated 1876. Franklin Jackson arrived at Drouin South in 1874, leaving a selection at Nar Nar Goon. An extract from “Buln Buln” by Graeme Butler tells of...

Noojee rail - an engineering classic

The railway from Neerim South to Noojee swoops and soars through some of Victoria’s most attractive scenery. Yes, I know that should be in the past tense, but I’m ever the optimist. Unfortunately, burned-out trestle bridges no longer safely spanning...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph capturing Main St in Drouin, including the brick building of Henry Pease and Sons on the corner of Hope St, c1917. Henry Pease purchased the business from J. G. Hearn in 1906 and leased part of the premises from him. Mr A. Wehsek, who...

O’Marney, The Pied Piper of Hallora

The first settlers of the Hallora area were typical of the many families in Victoria which joined the “Land Rush” of the 1870s. From Clunes there were the Hickmans, the Aikmans and the Brocks. The Simpsons and the Hallyburton brothers came from...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Mounted Constable James Wellwood of Drouin c1900. James Wellwood was born in Fitzroy in 1864 and joined the Victoria Police force on March 8, 1887. Constable Wellwood worked in Fitzroy for three years before being transferred to Ben...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the original Warragul Exhibition Hall in Howitt St c1960. Following on from its early history as Dan Moore’s garage, detailed in last week’s Gazette, plans for an exhibition shed of 120 feet by 45 feet were submitted to the Rural City...

Inflation was no problem for pioneers

Inflation of our currency does not mean quite the same thing as blowing it up, though the effects might seem similar, and we are told now that inflation is simply the process by which our money becomes worth less every year, and that isn’t news to...

Mirboo railway the “kiss of life”

The Mirboo district was thrown open for selection in 1878, about four years after settlers began looking for land in the hills south of Morwell. The task they faced was a daunting one. Some of the settlers came up from the Port Albert district...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Dan Moore’s garage on South Rd, Warragul c1919. The garage was located at the current site of the Warragul Exhibition Hall on what is now known as Howitt St. With the Warragul Exhibition Hall set to be demolished due to structural...

Point Nepean a gateway to history

It is totally fitting that Point Nepean is a giant park open to the public because there is possibly no other part of Victoria with such historical significance. The stunted ti-trees and the sand dunes, the broad shallows and the low cliffs, have...